10 June, 2014

Sony E3 2014 Press Conference Roundup

By
Kyle Shimmin

Sony came packing games, hardware and HEAT! But mostly games... catch up on all that they showed in their two hour conference, right here!

Destiny - The gameplay montage showed a range of enemies, environments, weapons and powers and they reminded us that beta access is first on Playstation, coming July 17th and players can apply for some Alpha level access to run for several days. Playstation players get a plethora of exclusive content; exclusive armor, gear, weapons, multiplayer map, ship and a ‘strike on mars’ mission.

The Order 1886 - The new trailer continues to demonstrate the stunning graphics that the game has to offer in atmospheric environments, showing the protagonist being hunted through dank corridors by a furry mutant creature!

Entwined - Entwined has an “Unique” dual-stick control scheme, where the player controls, two characters, one on each stick. Entwined is the developers’ first title and is available now on the PS4 for $9.99 and is Crossbuy to both the PS3 and Vita.

Infamous Second Son : First Light - Releasing August 2014, First Light is standalone DLC following the story of Fetch, a Second Son character with perhaps the most fun powers in the game.

Little Big Planet 3 - Sony’s marquee platformer is coming to the PS4! The Little Big Planet 3 demonstration showed, you guess it, 4 player co-op! In which each player had a unique character with unique abilities, one was a bird which could fly and carry other players, another was a seemingly inflatable character, who could manipulate weight based objects in the level.

Bloodborne - So the rumors of Project Beast leaks came true in the form of Bloodborne, a new IP from, From Software, the studios that brought us Dark Souls, Demon Souls and Armored Core. Coming in 2015 for the PS4, Bloodborne boasted a dark, Gothic trailer showing hordes of gruesome creatures, environments dripping with atmosphere and gnarly deaths!

Far Cry 4

Far Cry 4 was shown at the Sony Conference giving people a quick look into gameplay which featured guns, explosions, wingsuits and… Elephants? This gameplay showed signs of the classic Far Cry style including some new features like a Hook gun you can use to swing between places, leaping from vehicles and most notable 2 Player Co-op where the second player can fly into battle on a gyrocopter. It was announced that an exclusive feature for Playstation users is that they can invite their friend to play Co-op even if they don’t own the game which is very cool!

Dead Island 2 - From Deep Silver a sequel to the surprise hit that was Dead Island. Much like its predecessor, Dead Island 2 was debuted with an impressive trailer, no kids falling out of windows this time! Dead Island 2’s trailer was humorous and a like bombastic, following a jogger’s descent into zombiehood across a beachfront. Playstation players get 30 day exclusive beta access.

Diablo 3 Ultimate Evil Edition - Was given an August 19th release date and showed of some new enemy types in game, based upon the iconic Last of Us enemies!

Battlefield Hardline - Briefly shown once again, reminding Playstation users that you can sign upon for a console exclusive beta right now!

Disney Infinity 2.0 : Collectors Edition - The Collectors Edition will include Hulk, as well as several other Avengers exclusively on Playstation.

Magika 2 - Adam Boyes, of Sony announced that Paradox are working on a host of exclusive games and they showed a very humorous trailer of Magicka 2!

Grim Fandango - 15 years after the original release, Tim Schafer’s Grim Fandango is coming back, remastered exclusively for the PS4 and PS Vita!

Devolver Digital - Showed of a ton of games with exclusive console debuts, including;

Bro Force - PS4 and PS Vita

Titan Souls

Not a Hero - PS4 + PS Vita

Hotline Miami 2 - PS4, PS3 and PS Vita

The Talos Principle

Let it Die - The latest game from Suda 51 (of Grasshopper Manufacture), Let It Die is another new IP coming to the PS4 in 2015.

Abzu - PS4 Exclusive console debut, coming from Giant Squid, from the Makers of Journey, Flower and Flow. The Abzu announcement showed the breathtaking visual art and music one would expect from these developers!

No Mans Sky - Hello Game’s No Man Sky had a big presence in the show, showcasing both land and space environments. Procedurally generated worlds mark this game apart from other titles and the developer claimed that each player would start on a different world!

Mortal Kombat X - World premiere of gameplay footage, the trailer showed impressive gory graphics and snappy animation that you’d expect from a Mortal Kombat title! The trailer also debuted two new characters.

Metal Gear Solid 5 : The Phantom Pain

The trailer opened with a gritty war torn Big Boss walking through the ruins of what looks like Mother Base before hard cutting to Outer Haven where he and Kaz are burning coffins with the Diamond Dogs logo on them and for some strange reason Big Boss takes an urn full of ashes and rubs them on his face…. The trailer didn’t show any gameplay, that was shown the day before during Hideo Kojima’s interview on Spike TV, however the trailer did show multiple locations in classic Kojima style hinting towards story and fueling even more fan theories. The game does not have a release date yet other than 2015.

Grand Theft Auto V - GTA V will be leveraging the additional power of the PS4 this Fall. There were few details during the announcement, but the visual improvements were certainly noticeable!

Rockstar later announced that it would also be coming to the Xbox One and PC, additionally the GTA Online DLC currently available on the last generation platforms will also be included and players will be able to transfer their GTA Online characters onto current generation versions.

Batman: Arkham Knight - The trailer shown on stage gave a glimpse at one of the series’s iconic villains; Scarecrow and showed some visually stunning Batmobile combat . They also announced that the Scarecrow nightmare missions will only be available to PS4 players.

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End - Sony wrapped up their E3 press conference with

Uncharted 4 was teased leaving those in hopes for some signs of the Last Guardian upset, however they can fill that hole in their hearts with a vague release date for the latest Uncharted game; Uncharted 4 A Thief's End coming sometime in 2015 showed a beat up Nathan Drake wanting to get back into the game one last time after being out for so long. The short cutscene shown was all captured in-game on the PS4.

Additional Announcements

New WHITE PS4 Bundle - Coming September 9th and will include Destiny and 30 day PSPlus membership.

Sony made a big push with Playstation Now which will feature over 100 PS3 titles and will be available US and Canada on the PS4, in beta on July 31st. Alas there is no news for the rest of the world! The service will roll out later on the PS3 and PS Vita as well as certain Sony TV’s.

They announced that over 100 PS Vita titles are currently in development.

Child of Light

Tales From The Borderlands

Minecraft - Which is the full console experience, with co-op play.

Playstation TV

The Playstation TV, which has been out for sometime in Japan, will launch at $99, or in a $139 Bundle with DualShock 3, 8GB Memory Card and Lego Movie.

Allowing remote play to TV from Vita or PS3 through PS Now, featuring PSOne, PSP classics and Vita games, meaning that it will launch with almost 1000 titles.

Original programming coming to the Sony ecosystem, including Powers, based of Brian Bendis and Mike Oeming's graphic novel. Powers will be coming to the US in December, and every PSN player (in the US) will get to watch the first episode for free. PSPlus subscribers will be able to view the entire series for free.

Ratchet & Clank: The Movie will be arriving in theaters in 2015.

Original Ratchet & Clank is also being remastered by Insomniac Games, for the PS4.